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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Snow Challenge for January

Grab a cup of hot chocolate and embrace the snow and cold for inspiration. We have five inches of snow and ice in Ohio, today. Write a story using the elements as your setting.

The snow blows white on the mountain tonightNot a footprint to be seen...

The wind is howling like the swirling storm inside. . .

According to Rebecca McClanahan’s "Word Painting,"
setting includes time and place, as well as the accoutrements therein
such as a waterfall in a jungle
or clock ticking by a bed (McClanahan, 171).

Emily Jenkins uses lyrical language and the snowy setting to help Plastic ( the Red Ball) change from being bookish to becoming poetic.

When asked what snow is Sting Ray says, "It's a blanket of peace over the world."

"No, it's frozen water," says Plastic. "I read it in a book."

Are We There Yeti? by Ashlyn Anstee casts Yeti as the school bus driver. The children ask where
they are going and Yeti tells them it is a surprise. After a long trip, they end up in the snow covered
mountains and find...

"Now what?"

"Go have fun!"

Salina Yoon tells a tale of friendship. Penguin wants to know whats wrong with his friend.

19 comments:

Of course, THE SNOWY DAY. But I also like SAMSON IN THE SNOW by Philip Stead, and John Rocco's BLIZZARD. Being in Las Vegas where I am still wearing shorts and flip-flops, I can use all the wintry inspiration I can get.

From where I sit at my desk in Edmonton, Alberta, I see the snow covered ground from my view through my window. I really like Susan Jeffers beautiful illustrations in Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.

The Day the Crayons Quit was the mentor text/inspiration for my snowy/winter setting NF PB, A Warm Winter Tail. Like Drew Daywalt's shift in perspective, my goal was to switch the traditional perspective of people thinking about animals' adaptations to cold to animals thinking about how people stay warm. Strange but true :)

The board book - The Snow Globe [an ingenious format]. And picture books - SHELTER [2017 tale of newcomers and a snowy storm], THE THREE BEARS (Jan Brett)[she has so many delightful books that center on snowy days!, THE MAGIC DREIDELS (Eric A Kimmel)[a bleak,cold winter w/ MC facing months & the holiday w/little food is rescued by a dreidel], and THE SNOW SPEAKS (Nancy Carlstrom)[a beautiful book about the shapes and wonder of a snowy day] are some of my favorites

OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW and A POEM FOR PETER are two of my favorites. It's cold and the perfect day to use as inspiration for a story. Thank you, Janie, for warming my brain to better thoughts of the icy day at my place :)

Angie, I used to use a sleeping bag for a mitten. The "animals" would sit around the edges with their feet in the bag/mitten, when we acted out the story in class. It was fascinating that without prompting, every time the mitten would pop, someone would somersault out of the bag.